Bend Airport awarded $3.4M grant for taxiway restoration

The office of Sen. Jeff Merkley announced today that Bend Municipal Airport has been awarded a grant for $3.4 million from the Federal Aviation Administration to restore its Taxiway A.

"The current taxiway was put in in 1966," said Bend Municipal Airport Manager Gary Judd. "It's very old, and it's cracked."

The federal grant will pay for most of a $3.6 million project, which will widen the taxiway and move it a few feet away from the airport's runway so it can accommodate larger planes. Local funds will make up the difference for the cost the grant doesn't cover.

Judd said the airport was happy to get the grant, especially considering the turbulent funding year the FAA has had with its funding held up in congress.

"We applied for it, but with the FAA shutdowns, there was a bit of drama to see if we'd actually get it," Judd said.

Bend Municipal Airport is currently undergoing a master planning process and has had a series of upgrades in recent years including a new taxiway, which was constructed last year. The airport is seeing more traffic and making gradual upgrades, Judd said.

"We're up to about 98,000 operations a year, which is almost enough to qualify for a tower," Judd said. Some of the airport's traffic comes from large corporate jets, and while an increase in traffic is encouraging, those trips alone aren't enough to justify a complete upgrade of the airport.

"We're hoping there's some growth, but the recession has definitely slowed things down," Judd said.

Construction on Taxiway A is expected to be finished in summer 2012.